A lovely new album from San Fran indie-folkers The Dodos
kicks off today's featured releases, but that's not even the half
of it. Yim
Yames (My Morning Jacket's Jim James) and
Julian
Plenti (Interpol's Paul Banks) both go solo, and the
world is richer for it.
New albums from Riceboy
Sleeps (Sigur Rós frontman Jónsi Birgisson and his
boyfriend Alex Somers), Historics (a
side project of the bassists from Maroon 5 and Amazing Baby,
featuring Kool Keith), Sugar Ray (you
probably know Sugar Ray), Greg Davis (a
classically-trained Kranky Records dronemeister), and more!
All twelve of the tracks on this debut album have soothing
choruses and beautiful keyboarded highlights that heighten the
colors you see as the sun sets down in your back yard, the crickets
chirp and Good Old
War plays on.
Sign up for their
newsletter, a daily email of food, fashion, and nightlife
recommendations for your city, and they'll pick one lucky person to
give $100 of Amie Street credit!
The Silence of Love ends up being a revolving door of
folk rock tunes; whether or not you knew the original artists, who
strummed up these lyrics over the combined course of 40 years,
you'll love the way Alela Diane
delivers them so much, you'll want more, and find yourself bouncing
back and forth between this great compilation and the original
records.
Two exclusive pre-releases for you folks today! The long-awaited
LP from Discovery
(Vampire Weekend + Ra Ra Riot), and the debut from Brooklyn
"shwag-rockers" Motel
Motel.
Plus, an insanely good new release from Welsh (post-/meta-) punk
band Future of the
Left, a mixtape from Chicago rapper Naledge (1/2 of
Kidz
in the Hall), and more!
"Produced by the Grammy winner Don Was in a recession-efficient
two days -- 'there's no bread to dilly-dally anymore,' Mr. Was said
-- Mr. Snider's ninth studio record marks a relatively calm patch
in a volatile career and should finally help secure his place
alongside peers like Steve Earle as one of music's great populist,
if not popular, singer-songwriters."